During the Jan. 10 Holbrook City Council meeting, the annual update on the Holbrook Police Department (HPD) from Police Chief Nathan Christensen was presented.
According to Christensen, calls to HPD increased almost 3% in 2023, from 6,858 to 7,035. Despite the increase of calls, officers were able to lower their response time. “That’s not the time we spend on the call, but that’s our response time to the call,” he clarified.
Warnings and violations went down significantly, which Chief Christensen attributed to employee burnout from being short-staffed, noting, “Officers are working 48-to-60-hour weeks sometimes.”
DUI arrests went up from 15 to 25, as well as juvenile arrests and total collisions and sexual offenses decreased, with adult arrest numbers staying the same from the previous year. Dead bodies did increase, but most were natural deaths.
“The one that is not very encouraging is assaults against the officers. We increased from two last year to seven this year. We’ve noticed a 250% increase in assaults against us.” Chief Christensen credited this to lack of fear of repercussions from seeing mainstream media showing “people receiving light sentences and not really being held responsible.” This is a source of concern for Chief Christensen, putting more strain on the already understaffed officers. “Twice an officer had been put on light duty, which taxed us more, covering that officer’s shift for a few weeks.”
Chief Christensen stated that on average each officer took 907 calls during 2023, broken down to almost 19 calls each week.
The department currently has seven officers including Chief Christensen, with 10 applications throughout the year. “We have to compete with all the other agencies around us. But we also have high standards, and we’re not just going to take anyone.” One person hired enters the academy this week, and two promising applications came in the week prior. “If all goes well with them, they will start the academy in March in Flagstaff, we already have seats reserved.”
Councilwoman Karina Pack asked if there was some legal obligation for those who the city puts through the academy to stay with the HPD for a certain amount of time. Chief Christensen stated that the city does have them sign a contract for three years, but in the past has not enforced it. “We had two people like that recently who left us. When I went to the previous management, there was no action taken. I don’t feel it’s my responsibility to take that action against them, I believe it’s the city’s responsibility to enforce the contract, not me,” adding that the last officer to leave left the city basically owing $50,000.
